Anna Feirick of Executive Home Care Northeast Greater Boston presents Caroline Steim witj a rose. On the background is the painting whose story Steim often tells.
Caroline Steim, a resident of The Commons in Lincoln, was presented with a rose by caregiver Anna Feirick of Executive Home Care Northeast Greater Boston as part of its Roses for Resilience campaign, an initiative recognizing the resilience, wisdom, and contributions of seniors throughout Massachusetts.
“The day I met Caroline was a rough one,” Feirick said in a press release. “She had just taken a bad fall, and her face had an array of colors from the bruising. What weighed on her far more than the fall itself was the transition from independent living to assisted living. At 90 years old, she had managed to remain independent far longer than most.”
Steim was once an avid painter, but with macular degeneration, she can now see little more than shapes and light. “Yet that hasn’t stopped her from proudly telling the story of the painting she created on the night of her fiftieth wedding anniversary. Her children had surprised her and her husband with a stay at one of Boston’s finest hotels, where they also gave her a beautiful arrangement of roses. She was so captivated by their beauty that she simply had to paint them that very night,” Feirick said.
“I’ve heard the story more times than I can count, yet I never tire of it. Each time she tells it, I can almost see her reliving the memory — visualizing the flowers in her mind’s eye and finding joy in them all over again. Watching her do that reminds me that resilience isn’t just about enduring loss. It’s about finding ways to hold on to beauty, even when you can no longer see it.”
